NexGen ioControl 2.1 Key to vCenter Datastore Performance

The future of software-defined datacenters is still hazy, but NexGen Storage sees an opportunity to capitalize on this enticing phenomenon and challenge VMware for a piece of the action. ioControl 2.1 is the key, which enables users to provision and guarantee VMware datastore performance within vCenter.

NexGen describes ioControl 2.1 as the basis for Storage Quality of Service (QoS), a key enabler that delivers intelligence about system performance and enables users to act on and manage that information without the need for storage performance monitoring software. Storage QoS also enables users to set guaranteed minimum levels of storage system performance directly on a VMware datastore. Users can change the priority and storage performance of any datastore on the fly, in real time, with no downtime.

NexGen offers a hybrid system featuring SSD and spinning disk. While the two are not always in sync due to the higher performance offered by the SSD, the higher performance prevents the buildup of shared storage bottlenecks.

According to NexGen, "Customers aren't necessarily asking to go faster, they need a solution to help them manage performance as a resource like capacity and be confident that storage performance will be delivered consistently."

NexGen views VMware as a jealous gatekeeper of the SDDC that is commoditizing all infrastructure equipment while consuming all management functionality and moving everything up into the hypervisor. The company asserts that in VMware's quest to control all SDDC software, the company is acting increasingly like a storage vendor by offering snapshots, thin provisioning, replication, and support for solid-state, scale-out, and provisioning automation.

Regarding VMware's increasing storage profile, NexGen CEO and founder John Spiers, states, "Any storage vendor who doesn't believe this is in denial."

Calling automated monitoring a "huge, huge issue," VP of Marketing Chris McCall says, "It's no good if you can't act on it," adding that ioControl 2.1 "enables smart, informed performance resource usage metrics" that include per-volume statistics, system response times and workload-specific metrics like block size and host queue depth.

Henry Baltazar, senior analyst for The 451 Group says, "With its differentiated Storage QoS offering and hybrid solid-state architecture, NexGen Storage is well-poised to capitalize on what we view as a rapidly growing storage market opportunity. The majority of data center workloads are virtualized today. As organizations move to virtualize their remaining applications, which are primarily business- and mission-critical apps, the need for storage solutions that guarantee each application has its required performance will continue to grow."

NexGen also introduced I/O efficiency reports that provide users with insight into performance gained from NexGen's data reduction, which is designed specifically for primary storage.

ioControl 2.1 will be available Dec. 14, 2012 on NexGen's full line of n5Sries storage solutions. Similar to previous releases, ioControl 2.1 will be offered at no charge to existing customers.

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 11/10/2012 at 12:48 PM